Officials predict another month of US wildfires

by Associated Press

A large fire can be seen just south west of the Madras airport. Photo by Dan Morrison, Oregon News Lab

Federal officials say one of the worst wildfire seasons in the U.S. is likely to continue scorching western states and blanket large swaths with smoke until cooler weather patterns with rain or snow arrive later in the fall.

Forecasters at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise on Friday released the four-month outlook that predicts September will continue hot and dry with above normal fire potential in northwestern states, Nevada and California.

The 10,600 square miles (27,500 square kilometers) that have burned at this point rank the 2017 wildfire season as the third worst in the last decade.

The center says more than 25,000 firefighters and fire support personnel are spread out across the Western U.S. fighting 56 large uncontained wildfires, 21 of them in Montana and 17 in Oregon.